8 Underrated Comic Books That Deserve Their Own TV Show

4. The Question

The Question Dennis O'Neil Denys Cowan DC Comics
DC Comics

If you're at least partially familiar with the history of DC Comics, then you should know that Dennis O'Neil - the man who brought us by far the most iconic Batman to date - is quite the legend. Having had a career that's spanned decades, O'Neil has also proven time and time again that he's one of the greatest writers of the medium. What run best typifies his talents? In my view it's The Question, a series he penned with artist Denys Cowan from the late eighties to the early nineties.

Revolving around the character of Vic Sage - a journalist and vigilante - O'Neil's run was famous for approaching philosophy and making it a central tenet of the character, transforming Sage from an angst-driven thug into a zen-like warrior, capable of going toe-to-toe with even the DC Universe's foremost martial artist, Lady Shiva. Indeed, O'Neil's series stands today as among the best in the medium - a nuanced study of an overlooked character that, for all intents and purposes, makes Rorschach look infantile by comparison.

Of course, most will know of Sage from his fantastic portrayal as a crackpot conspiracy-lover in Justice League: Unlimited, but this is not the Sage that would fit a live-action aesthetic. Instead, any TV show should really be approaching an adaptation with the same sense of grit and philosophical purpose as the O'Neil series, focusing on a character embarking on a transformative journey that, by extension, offers something fundamentally different to what most DC shows currently tend to obsess over.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.